Don't Fall For The Job Hunting Credit Report Scam
Christine is looking for a new job, and she found this neat little credit report scam. The scam is pretty transparent in this case, but we thought we'd put it out there as a reminder anyway. Remember, if you want a truly free credit report, only use annualcreditreport.com. Everything else comes with a hidden cost or enrollment in a billed membership—and if a potential employer inists on a specific "free" service that isn't free when you read the fine print, you can be pretty sure it's a scam.
Here's the email Christine received when she responded to a help wanted ad:
From: Hiring Manager <[redacted]@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 4:22 PMHello,
Thanks for responding to our listing so promptly. This job is very straight forward. Basically, you will be answering the phone, scheduling meetings, and running company errands, but we really need someone to answer the phone. When running errands we will be providing you with a company credit card.
Due to bad experiences with this in the past however, before we can send you an application, a credit score from freecreditpage.com/Free is required.
When you submit your information they will send you your credit check, and when you email us your given credit score we can send you your application. Once your application is received I will call you to schedule a face to face interview.
Finally, we have full and part time positions available, so please send us your available work hours. Best Wishes!
Sincerely,
Bryan Smith,
Hiring Manager
Christine wrote back,
I will be more than happy to furnish a credit report, at my own expense, even, but only from one of the three main credit bureaus: Experian, TransUnion, or Equifax.
Of course, she hasn't heard back from Bryan since.
Update: Julia789 found a CraigsList ad with identical language. Thanks, Julia!
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Comments:
Odd Hiring Manager Bryan would be using a Gmail account rather than a companyX.com one.
By any chance, did she find this job posting on Craig's List?
Way to go. It's moments like this when I realize reading the consumerist is extremely worthwhile. In the past I may have fallen for this scheme like when I used "free"creditreport.com to get my credit reports. UGH!
B-b-b-ut she'll have to work at the pirate restaurant!
To be clear, is this a scam to a) entice you to pay a fee for your credit report, or b) steal your SSN and other identification information?
"Remember, only use annualcreditreport.com if you want a truly free credit report."
Perhaps should be "Remember if you want a truly free credit report, only use annualcreditreport.com"
It is understandable, but only use X if Y makes it seem like annualcreditreport.com should normally be stayed away from, which is the opposite of the intent in this case, no?
@Cat_In_A_Hat: by scam do you mean you failed to read the terms of service you agreed to when signing up for freecreditreport.com?
@ratnerstar: It seems like the scam is to steal information, although I guess the article makes it seem like it's to get you to pay for a credit report.
@CaptainConsumer: It is fishy, but I've seen it in many legitimate cases. Mostly when the position being hired for is discrete.
For example, where I work, they will place ads for new jobs that are rather cryptic and use a personal or gmail account, to keep others in the company from knowing a position has opened. Especially if they are hiring a replacement before giving someone the boot. They don't want someone at the company to see "Joe's job description" online and warn Joe that his job is in danger. So even if they don't mention the company name, and just say "a Fortune 500 company" that would be ruined by an email that said "liz @ xyzcompany .com"
In addition, HR managers are bombarded with emails from headhunters when they list an email address for applicants. By not using the company name, they protect themselves from years of spam and junkmail from headhunters. Many companies don't use headhunters for lower level positions, and want nothing to do with them. By setting up a free email account (such as applicant @ xyz .com) they can close the email account after the hiring takes place.
@ThickSkinned: LOL that is what I was thinking. But there are plenty of scam jobs to go around on Monster and other sites, too!
One time a few years ago, I foolishly emailed Monster to complain about a scam job listing, thinking they might care. Their reply said something to the effect of "Thank you for your concern. It is possible that legitimate business opportunities could appear similar to scams. Therefore it is up to the job applicant to decide if this is a legitimate job opportunity."
@ratnerstar: Could be a front for identity theft (I have no idea the reputation of that website, I've never heard of it.) But most likely it's a scam to sign up for a "free credit report" that automatically charges your credit card at the end of the "free 3-month trial" for credit monitoring service.
answering phones meetings errands? sounds kinda like my job. They could care less about my credit. Especially with bill collectors calling about twice a week for people in collections. `
Same thing is happening with apartment rentals. This for a rental on the 10th floor where there is no 10 story building in the area.
"Thank you for your interest in my condo for rent. I am booking appointments to view the condo and would be interested in having you take a look at the property.
Due to my previous renting experience I am requiring that you verify you have an acceptable credit score and would like to know more about your employment situation to avoid dealing with unqualified renters.
I would recommend getting a FREE credit report from http://www.creditreportgiveaway.com which requires less than 5 minutes and has no cost to you. This is required before I will consider you as a serious applicant. This will be useful for any other properties you are looking at and is a standard in pre-rent screening procedures.
I am asking that you complete the report and provide me with the numerical score, please DO NOT send the report as it contains sensitive information, you can print it for your records and bring it with you to the viewing.
If you can also tell me a little bit about yourself, your interests, hobbies, etc.
I look forward to hearing from you."
The other fishy thing is that the Bryan person specifically wants her credit SCORE, not a copy of her credit report. Employers are much more interested in the credit report than the score.
Any place that asks you for credit checks etc. before even allowing you to fill out an application or send in a resume is going to be a scam. The employer also foots the bill for the report.
This is an old scam. I used to apply for jobs online and they'd say the same thing. A few times, I held them to the test, tried to string them along and gave them a fake number, like "They told me the score is 500, let's set for a meeting" and I'd never hear back from them.
The site looks like it came prepackaged and cheap, all they had to do was add in the title. It's obviously a shill site for creditreportamerica.com, but the good news is that there's a option to chat live with someone ;) It was closed by the time I got there, but make you ask them how "Tyrone Williamson" from Brooklyn is doing :P
Anyone else look at the page? If you hunt around the site a bit, you'll find this: [freecreditpage.com]
Look at the link on that page, it's Experian! That's who's running the scam!
@ThickSkinned: Gee, how'd ya guess?
There are *just* enough legit job postings on CL to make it worthwhile.
Plus, my mom kept nagging me about "Well, are you looking on CL????? Your aunt found her job there!". She's not nagging me about CL nearly as much :-D
(Yes, I'm the OP)
Alas, the hunt continues...
@pmcpa2: No, it's a subdomain name that they're hoping you'll take for an Experian site. Experian isn't at ex93b.com. The page links on the advertised page take you to somewhere in valtrk.com, which seems to generate a considerably-greater-than-chance amount of people who then need to go to antivirus sites.
This has so many warning flags I hope few fall for it.
Who would send employment emails from gmail?
They cannot require you to do anything prior to accepting your application.
If they legitimately request a credit report they must provide the appropriate disclosures and the firm will pay for it themselves.
But people send money to 419 scammers so unfortunately some people will fall for it.
PMCPA2: If you refer to the UNSUBSCRIBE link, you are wrong: this isn't Experian, it just tries to make you believe it is.
The link is http://experian.ex93b.com/ +affiliate or sesssion ID.
The domain is a shill, "ex93b.com". it redirects to some Asian site at http://www.ux168.cn/.
@textilesdiva: Good luck with your job hunt! You're already one step ahead of the rest of the pack by being aware of these scams.
@bohemian: Yes, they always pay for it, and only after they've had an initial face-to-face interview that has gone well!
They've also been running this on Craigslist via the apartment rentals...telling renters that you have to purchase your own background check or credit report, then they give you a link where you can do so.
@pmcpa2: Yep! Certainly the idea that the big 3 bureaus are all in super-evil cahoots together has got to be common knowledge by now.
But as for Experian and what I've researched over the last two hours ... well - I love the list in the "about us" section on CreditCheckTotal.com of the fine group of "internet properties" Experian owns.
And I don't know what all this is about it taking you to an asian site, maybe thru the unsubscribe or something , but if you click to "sign up" it takes you directly to an Experian site. Go ahead, click to sign up, then scroll down on the next page and click 'about us', and then go here: [www.experianplc.com] - the real-deal Experian corporate site and compare the list of internet properties listed. And really Experian's scamminess stands by itself anyway.
They own:
1) FamilySecure - [www.familysecure.com] -
a nice little fear-mongering site offering to protect your childs credit report from identity thieves. I could not find where it says how much this service charges anywhere in the faqs, and I hate that sort of scammy-coy bullshit.
2) Affiliate Fuel - [affiliatefuel.com] -
says on this site "Affiliate Fuel runs a large variety of marketing campaigns that are based on a Cost Per Acquisition pricing model." According to the testimonials page, Affiliate Fuels clients include:
--------
a. Medical Hair Restoration
b. Matchnet.com - a dating site, has been sold to "American Singles"
c. Stratford Career Institute - Correspondence vocational training programs. "Stratford Career Institute does not hold any regional or national accreditation that's recognized by the U.S. Department of Education."
d. Professional Career Development Institute - has a rather long history of complaints at:
[www.ripoffreport.com]
e. Allied Schools - more crappy schools with complaints listed at [www.ripoffreport.com]
f. Ad-Spark.com - The site says they do "Online Marketing - Strategy - Planning - Buying - Customer Acquisition" - which actually seems a lot like what Affiliate Fuel does. (redundant much redundant much?)
g. The Debt Professionals - eerily, google turns up only general results even when searching exact phrase... can't find any actual website, but don't we all know these debt consolidation operations often have the taint of a scam.
h. CreditRescue.com - search results same as above, and seems the domain name is now unregistered.
see more scammy type business entities testifying about the righteousness of affiliate fuel here: [affiliatefuel.com]
--------
3) ClassesUSA.com®, - [www.classesusa.com]
- "is part of Experian InteractiveSM and is a leading online higher-education portal." -- and I know it's SHOCKING! but beleive it or not this Experian site shills for the education sites listed as clients of Experian site 'Affiliate Fuel.'
4) PriceGrabber.com®
- at least one well-explained complaint on [www.ripoffreport.com]
5) LowerMyBills.com®. - [www.lowermybills.com]
- ummm yeah if you couldn't already smell the stink, just look at the google results: [www.google.com]
6) FreeCreditReport.com
- misleading ads sure, but I'm totally hot for the bass player in those commercials...
7) ConsumerInfo.com [www.consumerinfo.com] --- OF COURSE we can't forget this one, the Experian company that owns "CreditCheck Total" - the company that is the subject of this thread.
So ok, before my head fucking explodes, can somebody tell me how this is possible?
How is it possible that Experian is so drenched, soaking wet, in these scammy types of companies, and yet they (along with the other 2) are in total control of whether or not we are deemed worthy of creditable trust? Talk about the fox guarding the henhouse.... christ almighty.
~~ and I'd love to see a fun consumerist post like the "choose your own adventure" one, but about the incestual scam-fuck that is Experian. Then again, it would just get too confusing. We might need Encyclopedia Brown on this one.
My wife wasted half a day on a cover letter for this in Charlotte. Same deal, different name and e-mail. I pulled the "Whois" for the credit site, but only tracked them down to a PO box. It's criminal to waste time from a job-hunters day in any economic climate, but even worse right now.
also a same scam on craig list but using rental properties as the catch for you to get credit report. They always want you to use specific report agency that rediercts you and always advertise super cheap rentals.
I can smell bullshit a mile away...
(Asked whois.melbourneit.com:43 about freecreditpage.com)
Domain Name.......... freecreditpage.com
Creation Date........ 2009-01-09
Registration Date.... 2009-01-09
Expiry Date.......... 2010-01-09
Organisation Name.... Matthew Bennett
Organisation Address. P O Box 99800
Organisation Address.
Organisation Address. EmeryVille
Organisation Address. 94662
Organisation Address. CA
Organisation Address. US
Admin Name........... PrivateRegContact Admin
Admin Address........ P O Box 99800
Admin Address........
Admin Address........ EmeryVille
Admin Address........ 94662
Admin Address........ CA
Admin Address........ US
Admin Email.......... contact@myprivateregistration.com
Admin Phone.......... 1.5105952002
Admin Fax............
Tech Name............ PrivateRegContact TECH
Tech Address......... P O Box 99800
Tech Address.........
Tech Address......... EmeryVille
Tech Address......... 94662
Tech Address......... CA
Tech Address......... US
Tech Email........... contact@myprivateregistration.com
Tech Phone........... 1.5105952002
Tech Fax.............
Name Server.......... yns1.yahoo.com
Name Server.......... yns2.yahoo.com
(Asked whois.crsnic.net:43 about =freecreditpage.com) (show)
Whois Server Version 2.0
Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered
with many different competing registrars. Go to [www.internic.net]
for detailed information.
Domain Name: FREECREDITPAGE.COM
Registrar: MELBOURNE IT LTD. D/B/A INTERNET NAMES WORLDWIDE
Whois Server: whois.melbourneit.com
Referral URL: [www.melbourneit.com]
Name Server: YNS1.YAHOO.COM
Name Server: YNS2.YAHOO.COM
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Updated Date: 08-jan-2009
Creation Date: 08-jan-2009
Expiration Date: 08-jan-2010
@╔╩╗: You're talking about CreditCheckTotal.com. The site in the article is freecreditpage.com. They're two different sites. The one you're talking about isn't involved in the ad featured above. The one the ad includes doesn't involve Experian.
I like how they keep trying to put "free" in the URL. I'm surprised it's not like www.freecreditpage/free/ipromiseitsfree/noseriouslyFREE!/I'MFORREALIT'SFREE!
ID theft made easy:
Annualcreditreport.com - The ONLY website where you get free credit reports
Credit Freeze - The most effective and ONLY way to prevent ID theft. It's so good that even my current employer couldn't access my credit until I call Equifax to unblock it for them.
Never pay for protection, it's not worth it. /End rant
@bohemian:
I wondered about this. I thought the employer paid for background checks, credit checks, etc.
Thanks for pointing this out.
@opsomath: Hey! I thought I was the only one the Prince of Nigeria was emailing. He NEEDS my help......lol (j/k)
There are very few real jobs that want a credit report. Most just want a background/criminal/motor vehicle check.
I had one that the background check was very exhaustive. I had to drive by a place I used to live because I couldn't remember the house number of the place. I lived there 10 years ago. One of the guys going from temp to perm had his held up because he had a Sears credit card that had his name misspelled 20 years ago, and they asked him if he had ever gone by another name. Took 2 weeks to straighten that out.
Has anybody else had trouble with the annualcreditreport.com website lately? It's just a black page that says this:
"A condition exists that prevents us from being able to accept your request at this time.
Please visit this website again at a later time, or to request delivery of your free annual credit report via U.S. mail, call (877) 322-8228.
Thank you."
@textilesdiva: Yeah there are a bunch of legit jobs on CL...but I wonder, why don't companies give their company name in the posting? I've found at least three jobs that I thought were pretty legit, but I didn't apply for because the posting didn't mention the company name.
The person referring (the "hiring manager") could be just trying to get a click per pay ad to everyone and anyone in order to make a quick advertising buck through one of the publishing websites. It's a nice scam considering the many people who need jobs in this tough economy.
Also... since when would a company trust the person to submit their OWN credit report? That's like a teacher letting their high school kids verbally tell their parents what their grades are.
@pecan pi: Some corporations don't put their name in the post because they don't want to be inundated with calls from aggressive headhunters pitching their services. Our HR manager put the company name in one ad on monster, and the main reception desk was getting almost 100 calls a day from headhunters all over the NY and CT area. It was insane. Company policy only allows headhunters and agencies for upper management and executives, because headhunters are really expensive. The next time she posted an ad, she put "a Fortune 500 company" and a gmail account. Once she reviewed the applicant's resume and determined they were serious and not a job agency, she told them the name of the company.
Another reason they don't do this, is managers often don't want to alert the competition to openings in their company. This is the same reason some hiring managers use a gmail or yahoo free account when doing interviews.
@Julia789:
..Another reason is that the job might be posted by a third-party recruiter that doesn't want you going to the company directly to apply for the job.
(I work for an online job board network that also does traditional recruiting, and just wanted to throw that one in there as it's quite common).
@ScottRose: Good point! Never thought of it from the other point of view - makes sense. Both sides want to protect their interests - for or against paying a commission/hiring fee.
Nice scam. Maybe not so believable that a company would only accept scores from this one website - but a lot more high-percentage than, say, a mysterious email sender claiming to be a Prince of Nigeria.